What I Ate in a Day #43

I've been noticing signs that I've been pushing myself too hard, so I chose to give myself a break from things a bit, and do some easier cooking. This means it's more expensive and more reliant on convenience foods, but it doesn't mean that it's pure junk. I'm saying this for my benefit as well as for yours--sometimes I need to remind myself that it's okay to outsource the effort when I need to. This was a day at home. I could have pushed harder, but I needed to rest. Rest, as I learned from How to Keep House When You're Drowning, is a priority as much as any task is.

I highly recommend that book, incidentally. It's amazing.

Using some strategic convenience foods also means I can use the energy I have to give myself more fresh produce, even when I'm lethargic. That seems like a good compromise!

My breakfast is poorly lit because it was quite dark when I ate it--this is the time of year with the least morning light, given the extension of Daylight Saving Time to November. (I seriously hate DST. But here we are.) It consists of some whole grain white toast with margarine, a hash brown patty, a veggie sausage patty, and some JUST Egg scrambled with red bell pepper, onions, mushrooms, and arugula.

I don't really buy the JUST Egg scramble anymore, since they made the bottle larger and far more expensive, but it's an easy, quick breakfast with some good protein from the mung beans, so in this low-energy season, I splurged.

To make an easy lunch, I made a dump-and-bake Tuscan orzo casserole (recipe from Rabbit and Wolves) and baked a Don't Be Chicken patty in the oven alongside it. While all that was in the oven, I made an arugula salad with tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, and slivered radishes and a lemony vinaigrette using the end of the oil in the sun dried tomatoes jar. It was good!

I really enjoyed this baked orzo, but I think it got a little dry. Next time, I'd probably add a bit more water. No harm, no foul, though. It was still delicious. But sun dried tomatoes and olives are amazing, so color me totally unsurprised that this was great!

As an aside, they didn't have the bag of arugula I wanted to buy, nor did they have the slightly pricier organic container of arugula, but they did have a huge 11 oz. container, and having no energy to handle decision fatigue at the store, I just bought the huge container. That's why you'll be seeing lots of arugula in the coming days. But that's okay! I like arugula and it's pretty versatile.

I didn't photograph my snacks, but I had a bit of chocolate and Japanese peanuts.

I had a coupon for this Culture Pop soda, so I bought a ginger lemon one to try. I didn't care for it, but it tasted better mixed with some orange juice (which probably defeats the point of having a low-sugar soda, but hey).

Dinner was a sandwich with whole grain white bread, vegan mayo, lettuce, tomato, red onion, cucumber, and Lightlife deli slices with some salt and vinegar chips. I put a ton of lettuce on this sandwich, which made it fresh and crunchy. I thoroughly enjoyed this sandwich, in part because of the bread. Seedy bread is all well and good, but sometimes I need the comfort of something soft and mild.

Also not pictured, I took my usual assortment of supplements:

• A multivitamin
• A DHA supplement
• A Vitamin D tablet
• A turmeric tablet

I am feeling a little better, so I am glad I made the choices I did for this day. What do you do when burnout feels like it's looming?